E3 2011 Preview Summaries

You might notice that I’ve been pretty silent on E3 2011 previews, despite hustling around the entire time. That is because I’ve been writing almost all of them for Strategy Informer.

So, those of you who are regulars at Gaming Podcast – and judging by hits, there are tons of you – here are excerpts of the previews I’ve written for Strategy Informer for PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 titles, plus a link to the full article.

UbiSoft’s Pre-E3 Briefing:

At the briefing, they showed off the following games: Rayman Origins, Driver: San Francisco, Far Cry 3, Brothers In Arms: The Furious Four, The Adventures of Tintin, Ghost Recon: Future Warrior, Trackmania 2, Raving Rabbids: Alive & Kicking, Just Dance 3, Rocksmith, Your Shape Fitness Evolved 2012 and Assassin’s Creed: Revelations. (Read more…)

Dead Island (PC, PS3, 360):

Getting back to the mood of the game, missions are similarly realistic and grim. Nothing in the game seems artificially tacked on; the flow and the suspension of disbelief are extremely well done. During a mission, sometimes you’ll rescue another survivor and they will have a mission for you to do right there in the middle of your current quest. You can opt to help them, ignore them, or even screw them by driving them off in their vehicle. This is survival, and sometimes, jjust sometimes, you may give in to temptations to make choices that will make you normally wince. It’s a zombie dog eats zombie dog world and in the middle of an apocalypse, sometimes you have to fortify your own safety at the expense of another. (Read more…)

Star Wars: The Old Republic (PC):

The devs showed a scene in which a Jedi subdued a Sith Lord, and the Lord accepted his defeat and desired the Jedi kill him quickly. In one variation, the Jedi took the dark side choice, cursing the Lord and killing him. In the other, the Jedi took the light side choice and spared him, detecting his desire for death was guilt. He urged the Lord to seek out the Jedi Council and turn back to the light side. When the Lord questioned if the Jedi would accept him back, the Jedi replied there was only one way to find out. They shifted to later in the game when the Sith Lord had indeed had become a Jedi, and stripped himself of the title General, for it held no meaning for him anymore. This was a case in which the actions of the Jedi had changed the story of the game. (Read more…)

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (PC, PS3, 360):

Dragons are a major adversary in the game, and they are viciously tough. They are also intelligent as well – they have no scripts. They follow a procedural AI that is completely unscripted. In one scene, a dragon swooped down unexpectedly to snatch a badly wounded giant from the player who was about to give the finishing blow, flew high into the air, and dropped the poor giant to his death. Why? Who knows, because the dragon then started fighting the player. It arced around the player, hurled fireballs, landed on the ground to attack with claws, then flew again. The player used one dragon shout to summon a storm that created a hard rain and lightning crashes. This wounded the dragon enough that it could no longer fly, and when a dragon crashes, it’s with an impressive thud. Dragons in Skyrim will be what Big Daddies were in BioShock on the expert difficulty – only there will be no resurrection chamber to save your buttocks when the dragon finishes you off. (Read more…)

Tera (PC):

A Vanarch can choose to be a kind monarch through such actions as lowering taxes and so forth, or can be a merciless tyrant who raises taxes, throws people in jail and institutes that the region is now a PvP anything goes area. Of course, the Vanarch must also be careful not to alienate citizens in his region, or risk being voted out of office. The Political system is a daring social experiment at the least, to see what kind of rulers guild leaders will be over a region populated by other players. (Read more…)

Awesomenauts (PS3, 360):

The game plays like your typical Metal Slug clone, with action-platforming, but bursts of jetpacks can allow them to hover in midair for a while, too. Players battle each other with each characters unique weaponry, while trying to bring down the barriers. Barriers are protected by laser turrets. Turrets also spew little minions who basically serve as cannon fodder – staying behind them to absorb damage while you fire over them. Of course, enemy minions are spewed by the turrets, too. (Read more…)

Star Trek (PC, PS3, 360):

The differences in play styles between Kirk and Spock are as you might expect: Kirk tends toward brute force, while Spock gravitates towards finesse and stealth. The differences are even reflected in the more subtle ways. At the beginning of the demo, Kirk and Spock are using the jets in their exosuits to navigate a minefield while trying to reach a hijacked U.S.S. Enterprise. While Kirk clumsily crashes into the ship, Spock makes a perfect two point landing. (Read more…)

The War of the Worlds (360):

The game features a washed out, nearly black and white look in alien controlled areas, which become more colorful when retaken by humanity. The developers state the game is a puzzle-platformer in the mold of Flashback, Out of This World and Prince of Persia, but fans will also see a resemblance to Limbo as well. The game will feature eleven massive levels and dozens of different areas filled with hostile aliens and fleeing humans, but unlike Limbo, the game will telegraph potential deadly traps, making the game more about near death experiences, rather than trial and error. (Read more…)

Defiance (PC, PS3, 360):

This Earth isn’t too familiar, however. Taking place in the near future, it represents a time when aliens have arrived and have begun to terraform the planet to their liking, so expect a bizarre melding of indigenous Earth plants and animals interacting with strange alien flora and fauna. Humans are trying to stop the aliens from changing the Earth, so many missions come from, say, preventing terraforming equipment from arriving in one piece. (Read more…)

Prototype 2 (PC, PS3, 360):

Prototype 2 takes place a while after. New York City has been cordoned off into three sections: Red, Yellow and Green. The Red section is where the virus is still running rampant, and horrific mutations roam. The Yellow section is a quarantine for those who escaped the Red section, but must remain due to suspicion of infection. Finally, the Green section is the healthy part of New York – but it’s not so healthy in that a militia has been stationed there to protect the citizens from incursion by infected – but rule with a violent iron fist. An example of this is when a curious blob of infection has found itself in a lot, the militia deal with onlookers by giving them a few seconds to disperse then opening fire on the crowd with live ammo and killing them. (Read more…)

Star Trek: Infinite Space (PC):

As captain, you can outfit your ship in a myriad of ways, and there are tons of modules that can be purchased (and will be visually reflected on your ship). You can purchase anything from extra ship’s phaser power to buying a cloaking device. Each station in the game varies in the wares it sells. For example, purchasing from a Federation shop will get you the standard stuff, but of very high quality, while you’ll find lesser quality items from the Ferengi, but they’ll also be selling hard-to-find black market items, too. Being a free-to-play MMO, you can buy items with real money microtransactions. (Read more…)

Payday: The Heist (PC, PS3):

One of the biggest thrills is that unlike Left 4 Dead and other like-minded games, you don’t have to jump into the action right away, and you don’t even have to play with guns ablazing. In the bank heist we tried at E3, you entered the banks with weapons hidden to case the joint, looking for the bank manager, who owns the security pass card to the vault. You have to be careful, though – wander too close to a guard and they’ll see your hidden weaponry and react with force. (Read more…)

My previews aren’t done – I’ll update this page as I add previews.